5 / 6 June – Our very first visitor

Tuesday, 5^th June

Our very first visitor to Idun was Emma!  She came while we were at Inspiration Marine, finishing off the purchase of the boat.  After the meeting and the unloading of a few things Emma brought down for us, she had the delight of a tour of our second home on water.

We then went for a walk through the woods to Hamble-le-Rice old village.  Lots of lovely ‘workmen’s cottages’, pubs and quaint walkways.  A quick shop at the co-op and back for supper.  We cooked roast veg in our brand-new gas oven, which we ate sitting outside in the lazy sunshine, sipping champagne!

The evening was great fun working out how the TV and entertainment systems work (the satellite dish was fitted on the mast today!) and checking how we can access Netflix and screenshare Dominic’s phone so we can see the Navionics charting on our flat screen.  Lots to discover.

Wednesday, 6th June

Emma hadn’t slept that well, very noisy with the water flowing and ropes clanging …  We had a tasty breakfast in our lovely big cabin while trying out the heating which works beautifully.   Went for a walk to find hearing aid batteries for Dominic, and along the way read about Hamble’s history as aircraft training centre during WWII.  We walked  along the river for a bit and enjoyed a drink at the Beach Hut Café.

We had a lovely lunch sitting in the very hot sun.  The afternoon was spent trying out the sun-beds, and we had a good shopping spree at the chandlery where we got flares and a few more things.  We talked about man overboard procedures and had a safety briefing from Skipper Dominic on the use of the dan-buoy.  After just a few chips (yum!) from the local chippy Emma left at 7.30pm.  We were proud to receive Emma’s seal of approval for cleanliness and modernity of the boat!  We spent the evening doing paperwork, (there are soo many manuals to read!), a trip to the laundrette, and when it got dark we tried out all the navigation lights, the steaming and deck lights.  All works just fine!